The Expanding Impact Investing Ecosystem: ImpactAssets 50

The Expanding Impact Investing Ecosystem: ImpactAssets 50

If you are an investor who has been wooed by impact investing and are looking for solid deals, where do you go?

That was the challenge faced by Ron Cordes, a wealthy New York based entrepreneur who was faced with the prospect of conducting due diligence on a myriad of possible social investment deals – without the time or expertise to do so. But rather than give up, as many frustrated investors might do, Ron sought the help of the Calvert Foundation and together, launched ImpactAssets last year with capital from Ron Cordes’ Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and other leading philanthropic and financial services sponsors.

ImpactAssets is a non-profit financial services company (I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but then, think of OneWorld Health, the first US non-profit pharmaceutical company). It combines both philanthropy and asset management to mobilize capital for social and environmental impact. At present, it has current assets of US$60 million and offices in San Francisco, New York, Seattle and Bethesda, Maryland.

I happened to be in New York this week and took advantage of a brief respite from meeting- mania to have coffee with my long-time friend and social investment pioneer, Jed Emerson. In catching up with one another’s professional and personal lives, Jed told me about his involvement in ImpactAssets – which in addition to him, has drawn upon some of the “greats” in the impact investing field, including Tim Freundlich as its President and as its Chairman, Wayne Silby, the creator of the Calvert Fund and Foundation.

As it turned out, I was serendipitously in the city for the launch of ImpactAssets 50, s a very cool initiative. In short, Cordes invited a group of impact investing experts, of which Jed is one, to review and select the top 50 fund managers who are taking the best of the for-profit and not-for-profit structures and blending them to yield social, environmental and financial returns. Criteria for consideration in this blue ribbon group include over three years experience in the impact investing field, a minimum of US$5 million under management, and a demonstrated commitment to social/environmental impact at the portfolio level.

In this way, wealth management advisors have a list of places to start their due diligence in looking for funds for their clients to invest in or products to place in their portfolios.

It will be exciting to see how ImpactAssets evolves in the coming years, how many fund managers will vie for the privilege of being selected among its Top 50, and how many entrants are spawned to compete with this very promising venture.

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